In committee earlier this month, Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel from Ryland Heights originally presented Senate Bill 79 as mainly “clean-up” legislation, adding interns to the definition of a state employee and removing some out of date language.
But the version that passed the Kentucky Senate Thursday added a portion that could upend the work schedules of many state employees. Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, a Republican from Smithfield, attached a floor amendment to largely strip the ability of many state employees to work from home, with limited exceptions.
Tichenor said she frequently hears from constituents who struggle to get ahold of government employees, including one who was unable to access emergency assistance for kinship care.
“This is unacceptable,” Tichenor said. “We have 60,000 state employees that are supposed to serve our 4 million plus constituents in the state of Kentucky. So this bill is an effort to get them back to work so that we can serve those constituents.”
The measure passed 25-10, with all seven Senate Democrats and three Republicans voting against the measure.
Sen. Gex Williams, a Republican from Verona, spoke in opposition to the bill. He said he believes there are “management issues” in state government, but largely prohibiting telework won’t fix those problems. He pointed to the huge investments the state had made to expand rural broadband access.
“I don't think we're doing that so they can watch Fox News or CNN or whatever they want to do,” Williams said. “We're doing that so they can work from home, so they can do remote work. So that in our rural communities, we can have workers that are doing good jobs, bringing home to their rural community and to their rural governments taxes and income.”
The amended bill broadly defines telework as an employee using “the internet, email, or telephone to perform work duties at a location other than an assigned primary work station.”
McDaniel told Kentucky Public Radio there needs to be additional “guardrails” around remote work and that he supports the amendment. He pointed to a limited exception in the bill that allows some state employees who don’t provide “services necessary for the functioning” of their branch of government to work, at most, two days remotely per month, with the permission of a top official, like the secretary of the Personnel Cabinet, among others.
McDaniel said he accepted that some state employees would not stay in their position should the amended bill gain final passage.
“We value the people that work for the commonwealth. We want them to stick around,” McDaniel said. “But if the work environment doesn't work for them, then they've got to make that decision. We simply cannot make that decision.”
The amendment exempted a few key employees from the telework prohibition, including Supreme Court Justices, all Kentucky State Police employees, health and building inspectors and state employees whose jobs require them to be away from their work station at least half of the time. It also provided exceptions under the Americans with Disabilities Act and in a situation where the top official of the government branch (like governor, chief Supreme Court justice or House and Senate leaders) calls an emergency.
Democratic Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong from Louisville said she voted in favor of the bill in committee, and was dismayed to see language added that could impact at least hundreds of state employees without giving them a chance to share how it might affect them.
“We haven't heard an analysis of how this might impact our workforce,” Chambers Armstrong said. “We've limited the ability of impacted people to come in and tell us — their elected representatives — how this is going to impair their ability to do the work of the commonwealth.”
Chambers Armstrong said she has heard from constituents who said that working remotely occasionally has allowed them to be more present for their children.
She said the broad definition of telework may actually decrease productivity because it prohibits employees who normally work in person from completing online or remote work in the midst of necessary travel, for example. It could also be interpreted to mean applicable state employees cannot answer emails or do any online work once they leave the office.
In response to another lawmaker's question, Tichenor said she had not discussed her amendment with the administrative leadership from any of the three branches of government – the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet, the Administrative Office of the Courts, or the director of the Legislative Research Commission.
Sen. Craig Richardson, a Republican from Hopkinsville, spoke in support of the bill, saying people need to be in the office to effectively govern the state.
“I too have received calls from constituents very worried about the lack of return phone calls,” Richardson said. “When I visited those cabinets, these beautiful buildings that we have in this beautiful capital here in the commonwealth, you could see tumbleweeds rolling through the hallways. They were empty.”
The legislation now moves to the House of Representatives, where it will have to go through another committee and floor vote.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
